Social and Public Policy - Policy and Practice

Bringing together a range of perspectives from practice, lived experience and academia, this is an accessible and timely guide to children’s services reform. Critically considering the impact of the MacAlister Review, the book highlights both the positive and negative aspects of reform, before setting out alternative policy and practice directions.

Situating the cases of England and Australia within broader global policy trends, this book critically analyses what has gone wrong with education policy. Drawing on wide-ranging research, the authors issue a fundamental challenge to current policy orthodoxies, and identify policy alternatives to make education both better and fairer.

The Global Agenda for Social Justice provides accessible insights into some of the world’s most pressing social problems and proposes international public policy responses to those problems. Chapters examine topics such as criminal justice, media concerns, environmental problems, economic problems, and issues concerning sexualities and gender.

With the UK’s decision to leave the EU as one of the greatest challenges in the EU’s history, this book seeks to understand the role played by social policy in the referendum campaign and withdrawal negotiations, and considers what Brexit means for social policy development both in the UK and across the EU.

This book is the first to evaluate the recent reforms of UK legal aid from a social policy perspective and assess their impact on family law courts and advocacy. It argues that the reforms effectively ‘delawyerise’ disputes, producing a more inquisitorial justice system and impacting the litigants, court system, staff and process.

Arguing that the UK Government intends to privatise all local services through its devolution agenda, Peter Latham proposes a new basis for federal, regional and local democracy, including land value taxation and a wealth tax.

Telling the stories of low-income families, this book exposes the ways that pre-existing inequalities, insecurities and hardships were amplified during the pandemic in the UK and offers key policy recommendations for change.

Drawing on the history of social care, international comparisons and lived experience, this vital book outlines a different vision of social care as an essential part of England’s economic and social infrastructure that enables people to live good lives.

Organised by the Society of Labour Lawyers, the Labour Party’s legal think tank, this book is a manifesto for change that showcases new policy ideas for the next government. It is a must-have collection of new insights into how a Labour government can renew Britain.

Naomi Eisenstadt and Carey Oppenheim explore the radical changes in public attitudes and public policy concerning parents and parenting, arguing that a more joined-up approach is needed to improve outcomes for children: both reducing child poverty and improving parental capacity by providing better support systems.

In Defence of Welfare 2 brings together nearly fifty short pieces from a diverse range of social policy academics and commentators, policy makers and journalists that focus on developments in ‘welfare’ over the last five years of Coalition Government.

Drawing on Roma community voices and expert research, this book challenges conventional discourses on Romani identity, poverty and exclusion. Through the transformative vehicle of a ‘Social Europe’, it presents new strategies for framing social justice for Romani communities across Europe and provides innovative solutions to these dilemmas.